A conscientious teacher always learns something new, makes it a part of the storage of her knowledge, modifies her view in the light of new facts, reorders her methods, and goes to the classroom to acquaint the learners with new knowledge she has gained. In other words, she is engaged in research. If teaching went on repeating what is already known and ignoring the new knowledge acquired by research, civilization would not progress. Research adds something new to the treasure of knowledge and without it teaching will lose its utility gradually.
As an IBDP facilitator, I wish to take this opportunity to highlight the importance of research. I believe that our learners are always learning, exploring, and analysing information through the courses of their curricula, all of this is the process of research. Field (2011) states education without research runs the risk of being based upon one or more of the following: dogma, theory, ideology, convenience, and prejudice. Teachers have a responsibility to develop conscientious citizens and research enables all the above to be tested and establishes decisions upon evidence that is assessed and tried.
Owing to the importance of research in learning, I have pitched the Project “Explore” an individual research project for grade 10 students after brainstorming with coordinators about paving a path for research in grade 10 learners. We launched the project on June 29, 2021. Firstly, we equipped the learners with the research methodology which involved learners’ exercising skills of finding new associations, within ideas, causal effects, and evaluation through varied perspectives thus encouraging the learner to choose a field of inquiry in the following subjects: Biology, Arts, Physics, Chemistry, Business Studies, Economics and English under supervision of respective subject guides. Furthermore, we collaborated with Callido- a learning resource center that creates 21st-century skills programs with a focus on learners’ growth, to acquaint our students with the academic writing process which helped learners in building their research proposals.
Finally, under the supervision of the guides learners have submitted their research projects and presented them on December 30, 2021. Through it, all we experienced is that research is not something farfetched but is a systematic process of cognitive complexity which in the end transforms and reshapes our own thinking and learning. This collaborative knowledge building has the potential to transform educands from inside out.
In order to make difference, let’s not just cover the syllabus but uncover the unknown, see what everyone sees but think what no one else has thought.
References: Sinha, M.P. (2004) Research methods in English. P. 6-7. Field, K. (2011) The importance of research for education’s future. (online resource- accessed Jan 2022)
IBDP & IGCSE English facilitator,
HOF: CAIE, IBDP English Department
